fb pixcode

MUSIC: HISTORY, SURVEYS & THEORY

PUBLISHER
D.A.P.

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 474 pgs / 400 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2018 p. 56   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781942884309 TRADE
List Price: $35.00 CDN $47.50 GBP £30.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

TERRITORY
WORLD

THE SPRING 2024 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. CATALOG

Artbook | D.A.P. Catalog Cover Link
Preview our Spring 2024 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
  

D.A.P.

The Disco Files 1973–78

New York's Underground, Week by Week

By Vince Aletti. Interview with Fran Lebowitz.

The Disco Files 1973–78

A new edition of the essential chronicle of disco culture

In 1973, Vince Aletti became the first person to write about the emerging disco scene. His engagement with disco nightlife continued throughout the decade as he wrote his weekly column for Record World magazine, which incorporated top ten playlists from DJs across the US (such as Larry Levan, Larry Sanders, Walter Gibbons, Tee Scott and Nicky Siano) alongside Aletti's own writings and interviews.

As disco grew from an underground secret to a billion-dollar industry, Aletti was there to document it, and The Disco Files is his personal memoir of those days, containing everything he wrote on the subject (most of it between 1974 and1978) augmented with photography by Peter Hujar and Toby Old. This book is the definitive and essential chronicle of disco, true from-the-trenches reporting that details, week by week, the evolution of the clubs, the DJs, and above all, the music, through magazine articles, beautiful photographs, hundreds of club charts and thousands of record reviews.

Photocopies of Aletti's Record World columns circulated for years among DJs and music lovers, until they were finally collected in 2009 into the first edition of The Disco Files, an instant classic that quickly sold out. This new edition of The Disco Files brings Aletti's compulsively readable disco writing back into print, adding an interview with Fran Lebowitz originally published in the Village Voice in 1990.

Throughout his career, curator, writer and critic Vince Aletti (born 1945) has been at the forefront of music, culture and the arts. He wrote for Record World and Rolling Stone and covered the club scene in the late 1970s and 1980s for the Village Voice, where he would serve as art editor until 2005. In addition to curating numerous photography exhibitions, Aletti writes about photography for the New Yorker.


Portrait of Vince Aletti, © Peter Hujar Archive, is reproduced from 'The Disco Files.'

PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Bookforum

Melissa Anderson

A first-rate disco first-responder, he has catholic tastes, boundless curiosity, and a genial voice.

L'Officiel

Nell Beram

[Aletti's] firsthand account of New York's halcyon days of disco is totally groovy.

AnOther Man Magazine

Sara Rosen

Aletti became the first person to write about the emerging disco scene, chronicling its rise from the underground to the top of the charts, introducing Black and Latinx gay culture to the world. In his weekly column for Record World magazine, Aletti showcased the latest breaking records, top ten playlists from DJs like Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, and Nicky Siano, scoops and reviews.

Paris Review

Vince Aletti is disco's greatest chronicler, the first writer to cover the emerging scene.

New Yorker

Hua Hsu

Aletti’s book offers a different version of the disco experience, one that is premised not on mythically great nights out but on conversation and careful study of one’s record collection.

The Disco Files 1973–78

in stock  $35.00


Free Shipping

UPS GROUND IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.
FOR CONSUMER ONLINE ORDERS

FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/23/2023

Time to celebrate! Vince Aletti's 'The Disco Files' is back in stock

Time to celebrate! Vince Aletti's 'The Disco Files' is back in stock

February is always a hard month, let's face it. We're picking ourselves up with a fresh shipment of The Disco Files 1973–78, Vince Aletti’s rejuvenating 474-page week-by-week chronicle of NYC’s underground music scene during the wild and wonderful 1970s. Featured photograph, selected from 400 black-and-white images from Aletti’s archive, is Peter Hujar's "Two Drag Queens Mugging, Halloween (II)" (1978, © Peter Hujar Archive). Between these ephemeral documents and Aletti's riveting, in-the-trenches columns, writings, interviews and playlists, this is nothing short of an historical document that no disco-era music lover's bookshelf should be without. continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/20/2019

Vince Aletti signing 'The Disco Files' in the MoMA PS1 Book Space during Come Together Music Festival and Label Market

Vince Aletti signing 'The Disco Files' in the MoMA PS1 Book Space during Come Together Music Festival and Label Market

Saturday, March 23 from 3–4PM, Artbook in the MoMA PS1 Book Space and D.A.P. Publishing present Vince Aletti signing copies of The Disco Files 1973–78: New York's Underground, Week by Week during the Come Together Music Festival and Label Market at MoMA PS1.
continue to blog


FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG

CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/11/2018

Hard to Read presents 'The Disco Files' at Le Bain with Vince Aletti, Matthew Higgs, Danny Krivit and others!

Hard to Read presents 'The Disco Files' at Le Bain with Vince Aletti, Matthew Higgs, Danny Krivit and others!

Sunday, December 16 from 2–10 PM, Hard to Read presents The Disco Files, a celebration of the new edition of Vince Aletti's classic document of the early days of disco music and culture, guest-curated by Prince Language. Join us for a signing and Q&A with Vince Aletti conducted by White Columns Director Matthew Higgs; Morgan Bassichis reading Douglas Crimp; a dance party with legendary DJ Danny Krivit and more!
continue to blog